commission was finally announced. Just
before the announcement of the
commission, Florence and I got cold feet
about what we had gotten started and
felt perhaps that from the amount of
turmoil that Magnuson was already making
the whole thing would turn out
badly.

Q:

There was no turning back at that point.

Lasker:

No. “Perhaps it would be well to stop it before
it got started,” we thought however, it
looked as if things had gone too far and
we made no effort to put an end to it.

Late in January of '52 Florence and I were
calling on Matt Connolly to see what we
could do about getting a new job for
Mike Gorman as a speech writer in the
White House. Matt was on the phone when
we arrived and Eric Johnston, who headed
the Point-IV Commission came into his
office. I described to him what Leonard
Goldenson wanted to do about making a
large theater collection for the
outstanding health agencies, and Eric
Johnston agreed that this was a good
idea. Matt suddenly appeared, holding
the door open to the President's office,
and said gaily, “Three minutes.” This
was a complete surprise as we had not
asked to see the President.

We greeted him and asked how he liked the new
Presidential Health Commission. He said
he hadn't heard anything about it since
he'd appointed it and said, “How are
they doing? I'm only interested if they
get something done, accomplish
something.” I mentioned that Magnuson
was a good